Next Station:Happiness?
by GreenCat70
Summary: Chapter 6:Sara could feel the man’s eyes were brightening as their eyes met on the reflection… GSR, WIP
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer****：**I do not own any CSI

**Summary****：**Who is the person Grissom thinks of at crime scene? GSR

**Rating****：**T

**A/N****：**Thank you so much to **Cropper** for the beta. And thanks a lot to **A.Remains** and** Silvin** for the support.

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**Next Station****：****HAPPINESS ?**

**Chapter One**

_Time passed when we were considering if the scenery out of the window was the one we wanted or was it really worth to stop by. And then, we missed the chance to get off the bus and the saddest thing was that we also missed the chance to confirm our hesitation was right or wrong._

That was a normal night as usual.

Leaving the Denali, Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows passed through the crowd, ducked under the crime scene tape and stepped into their work place. They had a DB tonight, that was not actually a complete corpse; it was slivered into thirteen pieces of flesh that were tightly sealed in plastic bags.

Captain Jim Brass stood near the big green dumpster nodded to the two investigators. "Miss Cart called the police one hour ago, her cat jumped into this dumpster and she discovered those bags when she got her cat back. Victim's ID hasn't been found yet… Poor girl, don't know what she did to get herself into something like this."

Catherine looked around. The people who were separated outside the scene by the yellow line were looking at them and gossiping as if the three of investigators were some strange species of wild animal they had never seen. Catherine watched them watch her and then turned to face Brass. "How did you know it's a girl? Jim?"

"Well, I haven't seen the main male trait in any of those bags." Brass shrugged.

Catherine flashed a smile to the captain. "Good observation."

The night shift supervisor had not said a word since he arrived in the scene. Grissom was just flashing his light to check the things in the dumpster silently and there was no expression on his face.

"Gil? Find something?" Catherine noticed the odd action of her boss.

"Lost your sense of humor? Buddy?" Brass took a close look at what Grissom was looking at.

Grissom had been doing his work over fifteen years. He had solved numerous unusual suicide cases, freaky kidnap cases, abnormal or eccentric murder cases; those cases made him felt angry and sorry for victims' families, but he had never felt as tense as he did now. Actually, he experienced the same feeling once before, it was not anger or frustration feeling, it was fear.

He was afraid.

It seemed something had blocked his throat. Grissom could not find his voice immediately, and instead his replying, he took one bag from the dumpster on his left hand and cleared his throat. "Cut is very clean."

Catherine shone her light on the edge of the bagged body and said. "Looks like this murderer used a very sharp tool."

Brass looked at his friend and the wrapped bag confusedly. "This bag reminds you of something?"

Grissom frowned and griped the bag on his hand tight as if it could loosen the tension in his mind.

"Debbie Marlin..." The conversation with Dr. Lurie was haunting Grissom's mind.

＊＊＊

"Sara I know a great diner, we can go to try it after shift." Greg Sanders said as he handed the kit to his co-worker and said it cheerfully.

"Thanks Greg, but I don't know if I'll be hungry later." Sara Sidle smiled, received her kit and walked towards to a house in which a neighbor had reported hearing gunfire.

"Try a nicer excuse next time, Sanders." Warrick Brown walked in front of them and chuckled.

"What took you guys so long?" Detective Sofia Curtis stood in the living room of the victim's house.

The smile faded away as Warrick heard the unpleasant greeting. "We got here as soon as possible." he replied to the blond detective.

Sofia pointed her finger t the dead bodies. "The neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce heard sound of gunfire twice and they called the police. I have verified their IDs. The male is Aaron Harrison, 35 years old. According to the neighbor, the female, Renee Mason, 27 years old, is his girlfriend. They were in that position when we arrived and there was a gun near the male victim."

There was a black wooden cabinet in the left of the living room, a light blue crystal vase on it and three light yellow calla lillies in the vase. The top drawer of the cabinet was opened and there were some bullets in it. A white sofa and a black square coffee table sat in front of the cabinet and a white arm chair rested behind the coffee tale. The position of the female victim was unusual; she sat on the floor, back against the edge of cushion of right side of the sofa, both hands drooping on the floor on each side. Trace of the blood from victim's neck became a startling contrast against the white sofa.

Her throat was cut and eyes were half closed.

The male victim lay prone on the floor near the arm chair and his face was turned towards the famous smiling Mona Lisa painting which hung on the cream color wall. A deep wound on his right forearm and a blood pool from his left temple dyed his pale face red.

"I'll photograph the bodies." said Sara. She took five photos from different angles of the male body.

Warrick nodded and turned to face Greg. "Greg, take the front yard and see if we can get some shoeprints."

The youngest CSI took one camera and hung it around his neck. "You got it."

"I'm gonna check other rooms." As he finished his sentence, Warrick went down the hall.

David Phillips brushed past Greg at the front door and the younger coroner walked speedily towards the living room. "Sorry I'm late." David stood near the male victim, smiled to Sara and then started doing his work expertly. David touched the arm of the male body then tweaked the left thigh. "All of the muscles are at the real relaxed condition, time of death is less than one hour."

After she swabbed the blood near the male body, Sara was treading with care while she took the photos of the female body. Suddenly, she saw something moving through her camera lens.

Something was twitching.

A finger.

She put the camera on the coffee table, knelt near the female victim and did not dare blink her eyes as she focused on the little finger of the victim's right hand. The movement was slight, but Sara was sure that Miss Mason was moving.

"Ambulance, call an ambulance, she is alive." Her voice cut through the silent night like a sharp knife. Sara shouted as loud as she could, becoming the voice of the female victim. Sara felt that if she cried more stridently and furiously, those memories of infinite pains, cruel tortures and great frights of the victim were disappeared.

**TBC

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**A/N: **Please let me know how you think about this beginning. And thanks for reading the story


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**：I am not connected in any way to CSI

**Summary**：How is Grissom going to deal with this case? Is Sara okay?

**Rating**：T

**A/N**：Thank you so much to my beta readers **Rhee **and** Mr. S**. And thank you to people who read and reviewed the story, your reviews mean a lot to me, I appreciate it. Sorry for update chapter 2 late, I'll try my best to update new chapter soon.

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**Next Station: HAPPINESS ? **

**Chapter Two**

_We always ordered the same flavor of ice cream, we always walked the same road to go to bus stop, we always lived the same regular life style, we were always afraid to change and we were always in a contradictory position, because we had the courage to force ourselves to stop seeking what we always aspired to but we did not have the bravery to accept what we lost._

Nick Stokes saw a woman squatting behind a big dumpster. The woman was focusing on what she was doing and had not noticed him walk into the garage of the LVPD building. "Hey Cath, how's it going?"

After catching a ride back to the lab with their only evidence, Catherine started to carefully process the evidence. She sprayed the inside of the dumpster, swabbed anything that looked like blood and took some pictures. She was taking one fingerprint off of the left side of the dumpster when she heard Nick's voice. Catherine's sight was transferred to Nick from the green thing in front of her and then she stood up. "Thank God you're here, Nick, I haven't collected so many fingerprints at one time in my life. I need to take a break and then go to the morgue."

"Sure, take a break. I'll keep doing it." Nick said, putting on a pair of gloves.

After she took off her gloves, Catherine spoke in an apologetic tone. "Nick, sorry for calling you on your day off, hope your girlfriend isn't angry."

"Don't worry about it Cath, Ariel isn't like other girls. She understands my job, so she won't be angry because you guys need me," Nick said it with a bright Texas smileon his face.

"Glad she isn't like Eddie," Catherine said with a flicker of a smile, then started to walk towards to the garage door.

Nick remembered something and asked Catherine before she walked out of the garage. "Hey Cath, where is Grissom? You said you were working this case with him."

The blonde CSI wheeled around facing the younger man. "Well, he's at the scene."

"The scene? I thought we didn't have a primary scene." Nick was surprised by the answer that he had just heard.

Catherine shook her head, looked into the air and sighed. "No, we don't."

＊＊＊

Greg walked into the living room from the back yard. "I got a shoe print and some weird balls, the size of coins. It seems Mr. Harrison loves flowers very much, especially white roses, and he takes care of them very well. Did you find anything, Sara?"

No response.

Sara concentrated on what she was doing. After the female victim was taken to a hospital, Sara silently promised the victim that she would try her best to find who did this to her. She knew it was not the first time she had faced a victim still alive at the crime scene, she recalled cases she had solved and had not solved, she seemed to see pictures of victims fighting and begging for their lives performed in front of her or seemed to hear frightened voices yelling for help to fend off death.

Empathy and sympathy captured her brain yet again.

She drew a deep breath to clear her thoughts. She could commiserate or feel sorry for the victim, but not now, doing her job was the major thing at this moment. Sara swabbed the blood on the sofa, the arm chair and the floor, took photos of the blood drops and one bullet hole on the cream wall, and bagged the bullet which had got stuck in the wall. She had already collected some fingerprints off of the coffee table and the front door, now she was using her brush to moisten the black powder and started to brush the black cabinet lightly and carefully.

"I didn't have any luck in the other rooms. There was no trace in any of the rooms, pearls and jewels were on the dressing table, everything is neat, clean and orderly. I could even see my reflection in that desk in the study. Man, this is the neatest house I've ever seen," Warrick stated while he put down his kit.

"Maybe you should see Mr. Neat's amazing garden, too. You won't believe this, there wasn't one weed in the garden." Greg joked to the taller man.

Finishing her work of collecting the fingerprints, Sara put all of the evidence into her kit. Something flashed into her mind, then she recalled her memories that once she had gone back to a crime scene because she had forgotten to check a spot. Sara stepped to the place where the male victim had been. Kneeling close the arm chair, Sara leaned forward, using both forearms on the floor to support her weight and flashing her light to check the space under the arm chair.

"Find something?" Greg stood beside the coffee table and asked her curiously.

Sara sat on her feet and held something in her hand which was stained by blood, and looked up to see the other two investigators. "Guys, I found a scalpel."

Suddenly, a sense of seriousness flooded the entire room.

The joking time was over.

＊＊＊

"Nothing." Grissom murmured to himself and used his sleeve to wipe his sweating face.

It was clear to him that their victim had been carved to pieces and dumped in an unrelated location and the murderer was smart enough to leave nothing for them. Although he knew the theories of murder cases, he still spent almost two hours checking all of the lawns on this street, one hour looking over other dumpsters and two and half hours inspecting the sewers to see if he could find any evidence the murderer might have left behind because of carelessness.

"Gil, I know you're worried, but we both know this isn't the primary crime scene." Brass put one hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him and said it with concern.

Grissom said nothing and walked away.

Seating on the driver's seat, head leaned against the head rest, hands entwined on his lap, Grissom started to analyze this case.

Was this case really connected with Debbie Marlin or had he overreacted about it? Did Dr. Lurie have something to do with this case? If the doctor was the killer, why did he kill someone again? Was it because he was addicted to the taste of killing people or someone had broken his heart again? If the doctor had fallen in love again, did that girl look like Debbie Marlin? Why didn't that doctor understand a relationship like that never worked, ever.

Suddenly, something jumped in his mind. A girl who looked like Debbie Marlin. He realized immediately who else the girl would look like.

"Sara Sidle." Grissom whispered the name he did not dare to think of and closed his eyes. He could feel street lights extinguishing and the beaming golden and orange light of the sun gradually swallowing up the night.

Morning was coming.

**TBC

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**A/N:**What doyou think about this chapter? good or bad?please let me know. And thanks for reading the story.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer****：**I am not connected in any way to CSI

**Summary****：**What happened after they came back to the lab.

**Rating****：**T

**A/N****：**Thanks a lot to my beta reader **Rhee**. Thank you so much to my reviewers, I've never thought that I could get more than five reviews, and your reviews and suggestions mean a lot to me. And thank you to people who read the story.

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**Next Station****：****HAPPINESS ? **

**Chapter Three**

_Life was always the way what it was. The bus you were waiting for was always late, the person you loved always didn't love you back, the things you wanted you always couldn't have. Maybe, you needed those various helplessness elements to color your life bright._

Silence was the only sound in the morgue. Doctor Albert Robbins stood near a steel table which was in front of the morgue cabinet. He warily dismantled the bagged bodies, and took a hose from a sink behind the steel table to carefully wash the blood and dirt away. He examined cuts and wounds of the flesh and tried to piece together the whole body as if he was doing a jigsaw puzzle. Sensing Catherine was waking in the morgue, Doctor Robbins said to her without breaking what he was doing. "Time of death is a mystery. The body, well, bodies were tightly sealed in plastic bags because of that it retarded the speed of decomposition."

Although Catherine had seen a lot of bodies laid on that cold and hard steel table many times before, she was still not used to seeing the flesh and still felt thrilling. She nodded and walked to a stop beside Doctor Robbins. "What is victim's gender?"

"Definitely male and age is around 20 to 30." Doctor Robbins said it firmly.

"Male? Shit!" That was not the answer Catherine expected to hear.

Seeing the wondering expression on Doctor Robbins' face, Catherine immediately apologized to him. "Sorry. Anything else?"

Doctor Robbins pointed a wound of the body. "Cut's clean. Extremely sharp, short instrument."

"Scalpel?" Catherine asked to Doctor Robbins immediately.

With a raised a brow in question, Doctor Robbins turned to face Catherine. "Have we had a similar conversation before?"

That question hit her, and then Catherine seriously asked her question return. "Doctor, do you remember few years ago we got a male victim was cut into pieces, just like this one?"

Doctor Robbins nodded twice. "I remember. The killer precisely dismembered the male victim without cutting through the bone. And I don't like to mention it, but the female victim with him looked like Sara."

"Yeah, that's what I think and we didn't have enough evidence to catch that killer. Do you think it's the same person? Doctor?" Catherine did not feel surprised that Doctor Robbins thought that, too, because she knew everyone in the lab would think that as well.

Doctor Robbins deliberated seconds. "I'm not sure, Catherine. All I can say is those two killers have knowledge of anatomy and elegant separate body skill."

Catherine sighed.

"So you're worried the killer might be the same person?" Doctor Robbins asked it curious.

Catherine shook her head. "No, I'm worried about how much Gil will be stuck in the case this time."

＊＊＊

It was almost five o'clock in the morning when Warrick, Greg and Sara left their crime scene. On the road back to the lab, they did not say a word, even optimistic Greg could smell how terrible and serious this case was. Because their victim was still alive, they had to push their good luck to catch the cruel killer and give their victim a justice. Leaving the parking lot with the evidence that they had collected, the three of them all knew their work was not finished yet. Without any hesitation, the CSIs walked in three different directions to start what they should do.

After he gave lab teach, David Hodges, the small balls that he found in victim's garden to examine their compositions, Greg went into a lab. He opened the flatbed scanner and scanned the shoe print he found with the small balls into the computer and printed it out with a transparency film straightly. He than took the film and went to layout room, moved five thick shoeprint books on a big table in the middle and started to compare the shoe print he got with the books.

Sara started to analyze the scalpel, she found under the arm chair. After she went to the trace to give lab teach Bobby Dawson two bullets, which she found in Mr. Harrison's living room. She carefully took a sample of the blood on the scalpel then turned off the light, used ALS to see where prints were exactly and tape lifted one fingerprint off of the scalpel.

Warrick took a tape lift and puts it over the gun which was found near the male victim and collected two fingerprints off of it, then he gave the prints to print lab teach Jacqui Franco to run them through AFIS to see whom those print belonged to and he gave the gun to Bobby.

Hearing footsteps in the hall, Greg lifted his head seeing it was Warrick who just passed by the layout room, he threw down the film on the table and quickly walked to the door. "Hey Warrick!"

Warrick stopped and turned around to look at source of the voice. "What's wrong? Greg?"

Left hand grabbing the door frame to support his weight, half body leaned against it, Greg said in a worried tone. "Do you think Sara is wired?"

"Why?" Warrick stared at the younger man. Of course he knew why Greg asked the question because he was concerned as the man in front of him. But he knew Sara. He knew she did not want people to think she was weak or question her professionalism when she did her job.

"Well, Sara acted like she was fine, but I know she is anxious about the victim after she discovered the victim was alive and Sara didn't say a word after she found the bloody scalpel. You think she is alright?" Greg was a little satisfied with his observation skill.

Although what Greg said was right, Warrick thought it was not a good time to ask Sara if she was alright. "I think Sara is alright, Greg. She is a big girl, if she needs some help, she'll ask for."

"Yeah, right, she'll ask." Greg drily said without looking Warrick.

Warrick stared at him. "Did you get a mach off that shoe print?"

"Okay! Okay! I'll do it now." Greg turned around and went back to the big table as fast as he could.

Warrick looked Greg went back to his work then he straightly walked towards to the morgue.

**TBC

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**A/N****：**I know this chapter was lack of Sara and Grissom, but trust me, it's a **GSR** story. Any suggestion or what you think after you read this chapter? Please let me know. And thanks for reading the story.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer****：**I am not connected in any way to CSI

**Summary****：**Sara heard something from Nick

**Rating****：**T

**A/N****：**Thank you so much to **Rhee** for the beta. Thank you so much for the review/feedback, I appreciate it a lot.

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**Next Station****：****HAPPINESS ?**

**Chapter Four**

_We were all looking for our terminal station, a place we belonged to or a place accepted for whom we really were. Some people were lucky enough to find their last stop without getting off the wrong station, whereas others were not._

Greg stormed into the trace lab and moved to stand next to Hodges. "You paged me?"

"Yes and I've identified the small balls you found in your victim's garden." Hodges replied with a self-satisfied and proud expression on his face.

"So?" Greg lifted an eyebrow and waited for the answer.

Hodges read the result from the report he was holding. "Na2B4O7·10H2O, moisture content, starch, protein, cellulose, Vitamin C, potassium, sugar, sol, citric acid, calcium lactate, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, VitaminB1, B2 and B5."

Greg organized the chemical formula in his head. "Na2B4O7·10H2O, that's borax, and what?"

"And potato." Hodges said affirmably.

Greg eyes widened and stared at Hodges. "Potato?"

＊＊＊

Mr. Harrison's body was laid out on the steel table, the skin was opened and the rib was set aside near the body. Doctor Robbins was holding the victim's intestines and going to put them on the scale which was behind the steel table.

"Hey Doc." Warrick greeted as he walked in the morgue.

Doctor Robbins nodded to him then picked the intestines up off the scale then put them into a drain pan. "Mr. Harrison's health condition was good. Great teeth, beautiful lungs and Cause of death was a gun shot, direct damage. The bullet penetrated from his left temple, through the skull and brought the skull fragments caused the surface of his brain injured. Then the bullet continued to pass through the brain and directly destroyed the cerebrum, formed a trajectory and the bullet came out from his right temple."

Warrick nodded his understanding and he pointed at a long wound on victims' right forearm. "What about that wound, Doctor?"

Doctor Robbins carefully examined the wound. "Coincidentally, this was the second time I saw the clean-cut tonight. It might be a sharp and short instrument."

"Sharp instrument? Sara found a scalpel at our scene."

＊＊＊

Sara chose a lab room which people barely stopped by and spread out the photos they had taken at the scene on the table after she gave DNA Lab, Wendy, the blood she had swabbed from the scalpel. Standing in front the table, Sara divided the photos into three groups and aligned them in a straight line. She started to run through her theory in her mind. As Warrick had said, jewels were on the dressing table, it was not robbery. Then why did the murderer go to Mr. Harrison's house and killed him and hurt his girlfriend? Was it vengeance or did the murderer just kill people no reason? And Miss Mason, was she okay? Should I call the hospital? Sara checked the clock on the wall, seeing it was nearly twenty minutes after the shift. She had promised herself that she would not work overtime, even if her job was to help the victims' family and they all relied on CSIs to find out murderers, but she realized she was human after all. She needed to rest to clear her brain, needed her own life to refresh her mind and she needed to go home to feed the only man in her life, Justin, her Tail Betta. Sara tidied up the photos then put them in a file folder.

Sara murmured after considering her dilemma. "Okay Justin can wait."

She decided to see Miss Mason before went home.

Nick saw Sara stepping into the locker room and gave her a big smiled. "Hey Sara, heading home?"

Sara returned the smile, walked toward to her locker and opened it. "Hey Nick, I thought you had the day off. I was thinking of going to Desert Palm Hospital before heading home."

"Yeah I had a day off, but Cath called me said she needed me in for this case. Why are you going to the hospital? Are you sick?" Nick took off his T-shirt, grabbed a shirt from his locker and put it on and turned to face Sara with a serious expression on his face.

"I'm okay Nick. I discovered our victim was alive at our scene so…um I want to know how she is now. I thought Catherine was working with Grissom and nice suit by the way." Sara showed him a smile to convince him and turned back to her locker to put her stuff into her bag.

Nick felt relieved after he heard her reply and looked down to see his shirt with a satisfied smile and lifted his head to see Sara. "Oh thanks, Ariel bought it to me. Good to know you're fine, Sara. And yes, Cath was working with Grissom, they got a DB who was cut into pieces and dumped in a dumpster. Cath said Grissom was still at the scene and he was a little…um depressed by this case, so she needed me in the lab."

"Oh…" An emotion involved Grissom at crime scene? That was not like him. Sara thought as she put her bag around her shoulder.

"But Sara, you can call the hospital to ask, you know, you don't have to go there by yourself." Nick said as he took his wallet out of his locker.

"Yeah, I know it Nick, I know." Sara stared at the floor as if she was telling the lie to Nick, but of course she knew she could make a phone call instead went there by herself.

Nick suddenly recollected that Sara was concerned about a female victim who was rapped, abused and left alive at the crime scene few years ago and Grissom rushed that case for her. "Okay, if you need anything just call me, okay? By the way when will you have dinner with Ariel and me? You promised us, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, yes, dinner, of course I remember, I'll call you later okay? I'm leaving now, see you next shift." Sara hurriedly said goodbye and left the locker room.

Nick shocked his head and replied to the empty locker room. "Sure, see you later."

I t was not like she hated to have dinner with Nick and his girlfriend and she felt happy for Nick that he finally met a prefect girl. Just she was not used to blending into those kinds of situations. Sara walked through the hallway, said goodbye to the office secretary, Judy Tremont and speedily walked her way out of the building. Seeing the intense light of the enormous Vegas sun, she took her sunglasses out from her bag and put them on. Sometimes, she could not distinguish which season it was in Vegas, and it always felt hot in the morning and cold at night. She was not that kind of person who let weather affected their mood, but she still needed to feel those little changes in daily life to remind her which season was and how long she had been living in here. She knew the weather was not the only thing she missed from San Francisco. Feeling the morning light was burning her skin, she quickened her speed to reach her car and unlocked it. Before opening the car door, she looked over her shoulder to see the parking space A-012 where Grissom usually parked his car. It was empty. He had not come back to the lab yet. Sara thought when she climbed in her car. She slowly put the seat belt on, adjusted the back mirror and then glared at A-012 once again. She knew that she was being ridiculous; she always found stupid excuses like what she was doing to linger around the lab before heading home to wait, wait to see him before she left. She could not help but strongly wanting to see him now. Just a stolen glance of him made her have sweet dreams. It was a simple and pure desire.

She started the engine.

The new day was beginning.

**TBC

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**A/N****：**Any suggestion of this chapter? Thank you so much for reading the story.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer****：**I am not connected in any way to CSI

**Summary****：**Grissom went back to the lab and Sara's hospital visiting.

**Rating****：**T

**A/N****：**Thank you so much to my beta reader **Rhee.** Thank you so much to people who are willing to spend time to read my story and leaving me a review/feedback, I appreciate it a lot.

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**Next Station****：****HAPPINESS ?**

**Chapter Five**

_Sometime, the happiness that we were looking for was in front of us, but we always used the most complicated experiment to prove the simplest truth._

Grissom checked the phone number and answered it after a few rings. "Grissom."

"Gil, it's almost half an hour after the shift. Are you still at the scene?

No response.

"What the hell was that?" Catherine stared at her cell phone; she could not believe that Grissom said nothing before he hung up the phone.

Grissom stepped up behind her. "Catherine, I'm here."

Catherine spun around and saw an exhausted Grissom stood in front of her. "Oh, you're here, good."

Grissom did not say a word while they were walking down the hall. Catherine stole few glances at Grissom few times to try to conjecture what was in Grissom's mind from his appearance. Thought Catherine was a good investigator, she could not observe anything from an expressionless man.

Catherine stopped in the doorway of Grissom's office, she looked Grissom as he stepped in, turned on the lamp on his desk to filter through the darkening office, then sat quietly in his office chair and looked into the air. Catherine closed the office door, walked up to the two chairs in front of Grissom's desk and chose the right one to sit. Silence was heavy as a black cheviot suffocated the entire room. Catherine spoke first. "So, find anything?"

Grissom just shook his head, put his forearms on the desk while leaning towards it and stared at his entwined hands.

"I've never interfered your private life, Gil, but we all know the way you care about Sara is more than the way a boss should be."

"What way?" Grissom lifted his sight to meet Catherine's eyes briefly then back to his hands.

Catherine rolled her eyes. "We are not blind Gil. Do you really think that no one has noticed?"

Grissom felt a little uncomfortable in his seat. "Who are _we_?"

Catherine's small smile appeared on her face when she heard Grissom's question, this man was always an investigator. "Well, we are Jim, Warrick and me. And maybe Doctor Robbins"

"Oh…" Grissom remained silent.

Knowing her friend would not say anything more, Catherine stood up from her seat. "Okay, breakfast at my home and then we can talk."

This was the first time that Grissom looked at the blond woman after he entered his office. "I'm fine Catherine. I don't need either breakfast or to talk."

Catherine almost lost her tempter and said it aloud. "Move Gil, just move."

Grissom sighed and left his seat unwilling.

＊＊＊

The Desert Palm Hospital smelled of medicine and despair. Sara hated the smell in a hospital, to her; those smells equaled scattered broken glasses, country music and bruises.

In her memory, there was dancing furniture accompanied arguments and fighting all the time at home. When she was still a little girl, her brother took her to the garret when there was a fight at home. The garret was low and small, so they could not sit straight in it even when they were children. They lay prone on the floor of the dark garret after they climbed into it, then her brother started to tell her story which was only of happiness and welfare. She always rested her chin on her fold forearm when she was listening to the story and she always fell asleep peacefully before her brother ended the story.

Later, when she grew up a little, her brother was barely stayed at home and no one told her those fairy tales anymore when there was a fight. Therefore, she learned to hide, she locked herself in her room, turned on her radio to play country music loudly, sitting in the corner near her bed, tightly closed her eyes and muffled her ears with her both hands. She stopped praying since she witnessed her brother being hit by their father because he tried to protect their mother.

When she was eleven, her brother left home for school and never came back. She was forced to grow up in an instant; she attempted to fight for her annoyed life, her foolish mother and herself. Doubtless, that was the beginning when bruises showed up on her skin. Her father placed a slap on her face, she spat on one of her father's shoe and that was the first time she was beaten. She did not beg for her farter to stop. She could not distinguish tears on her face or the injury to her stomach or back could indicate the pain from her heart pertinently, she would not let her father think that he had won; she could not show her weakness in front of him, she did not scream while her father was kicking her.

Sara heard her mother say sorry and that it was all her mother's fault when she lay on hospital bed, she did not say a word to her mother, she hated her, not because her mother did not protect her, because her mother was too cowardice to take them away from the man who treated his wife and children as a trash. She believed that her mother would never disobeyed her father until the day her mother killed her father and that was a week before she turned to thirteen.

Those memories which she did not want to be remembered were sealed in a bottle by a cork, and she frequently insured that the memories were latched in to the bottle. Sara oftentimes felt uneasy and insecure at hospital, if said that she hated hospital rather than she was afraid of it. Maybe because she truly understood what her fear was, she even felt anxious.

Hospitals were the hand which tried to open the cork of her memory bottle.

Those unbearable memories.

Sara walked past a woman and a little boy who were holding hands and talking to each other in the entry of the Desert Palm Hospital. She heard the little boy beg to his mother for a new toy, a bitter smile flashed on her face.

Sara stopped in front of the front desk "Excuse me; I'm looking for a Miss Renne Mason, she was sent in at midnight."

Sara looked at that blond haired hair nurse staring at the computer screen, typing fast and moved the white mouse to search for the information then the nurse raised her head to see her. "Yes, there is a Renne Mason, and she is in the ICU. Are you her family? Miss?"

"No, I'm not." Sara lightly shook her head as she said.

"Then I'm afraid that you can't see Miss Mason now." The blond nurse said casually to Sara then turned back to her computer screen.

Sara handed over her ID to the nurse. "I'm Sara Sidle, from Las Vegas Crime Lab. I discovered Miss Mason was alive at a crime scene. I want to make sure she's fine."

"Oh, I see. Please wait a minute." The blond nurse picked up the phone on her desk desk, dialed three numbers then talked to a person at the other end.

Few minutes later, a black hair haired nurse walked towards them.

The blond stood as she spoke. "Nadia, Miss Sidle is from crime lab, she wants to see Renne Mason who was sent here around midnight, and I remember that she is your patient, so can you take Miss Sidle to see her?"

"Sure, I'm gonna check her condition now. Miss Sidle, please come with me." The black haired nurse gave Sara a smile, and then led the way.

Sara said her thank to the blond nurse then followed the other. A sorrow expression was showing on Sara's face when she would occasionally glanced a female patient who was wrapped in a bandage around her injured arm sat in a sickroom while they were walking down the hall. Sara tried to look straight down her road; they turned left, continued walking awhile, and then reached the ICU door. The nurse held the door and let Sara in first.

Miss Mason was lying on the bed; dancing blue curves showing on the EKG monitor became her heartbeat, ventilator and endotracheal tubes machines turned into her respiratory system. Seeing it through a big transparent glass, compassion emotion arose in Sara's mind.

"Miss Mason had an operation earlier and she's going to be fine. Just…her vocal cord was seriously hurt, so she will not speak again." The black haired nurse looked sadly at her patient.

Sara said nothing just stared at her victim. She sensed someone was entering the room and stopped a few steps away from her, but her sight never left what she was looking at.

The nurse nodded to that person then said. "Miss Sidle, this is doctor Vincent Lurie, he performed Miss Mason's surgery last night."

Sara froze as a statue when she heard the name.

**TBC

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**A/N****：**Please let me know what you think of this chapter, and suggestions and advices are always welcome. Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer****：**I am not connected in any way to CSI

**Summary****：**Sara could feel the man's eyes were brightening as their eyes met on the reflection…

**Rating****：**T

**A/N****：**Thousands thank you to **Rhee** for the beta, you're awesome. Thanks a lot to **Sil** for support, all the time. And many many thanks to people who left me review/feedback, your small action really means something big to me.

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**Next Station****：****HAPPINESS ? **

**Chapter Six**

_Sometimes, we just choose. Choose to forget events which made we laughed were experienced, choose to pretend things we could not have were not existence and chose to believe people who loved us were always there. Gradually, we forgot that we still had a choice to choose, but did not choose._

Alarmed, that was not an accurate word to describe Sara's reaction when she heard the name, but close enough. She knew that that was a name which concealed a dirty secret behind, a name who easily took off somebody's life.

Somebody.

No, it wasn't somebody; it was a girl, a girl who looked like her.

It seemed her body was woven with green creepers and vines which grow from the ground and she could not move or she was too scared to move. Sara could see his face from the reflection on the big transparent glass; she could see that man was staring at her, and she could feel the man's eyes were brightening as their eyes met on the reflection, and that made her shiver and she felt her stomachache.

The black haired nurse walked near Sara and spoke softly. "Miss Sidle? Miss Sidle? Are you okay?"

Sara tried hard to squeeze a small smile out for the nurse. "Huh? Yeah, I…um…I'm…I'm fine. I was thinking."

The nurse returned her a smile and introduced the man once again. "This is Doctor Vincent Lurie. Doctor, this is Miss Sara Sidle, from Las Vegas Crime Lab."

Sara witnessed every moment the man made. He quickly came forward to close for her comfort and he hung out his left hand lingering in the air and waiting for Sara to reach it.

Be rude or be careful.

Sara was in a position. She had ever faced a large number of outrageous cases, but none of them made her feel intimidate like this. It as if she hung out her hand meant that she allowed the doctor to take off her life, and free. Looking down at that hand, Sara hesitated.

Than, she hung out her left hand.

Her heart beat quicken at the minute her palm touched his palm. Sara felt the heat spread and rising through her body by the connection of their shaking hands. The hand was bigger than hers, and the skin of his palm was rough, Sara could felt calluses on knuckle of his index finger and thumb. The feeling of the doctor's hand in her hand was totally and completely different from Grissom's hand. She had been held by Grissom's hand. Twice.

Grissom's hand was gentle, tender and protective.

Grissom.

＊＊＊

He did not feel hungry.

Grissom just used his fork to prick the golden muffin in front of him.

Looking every moment of dejection Grissom sat opposite to her, it seemed that she was looking at a kid who lost his favorite toy, no, it should be like he lost his only toy. Of course, Catherine was clearly that Sara was not a toy to Grissom and the way to solve the problem was not like buying a new toy to the boy that easy. Finished the last bite of her muffin, Catherine asked. "So, why did you bring Sara to Las Vegas?"

"She is a great CSI, and I needed her to investigate Warrick's case." Grissom did not bother to see Catherine while he was talking and he was still pricking his muffin.

"What exactly is the past of two of you?" He knew that Catherine was not going to let this great opportunity slip by.

"I gave a lecture in entomology at San Francisco eight years ago, that was how I met her." He sighed.

"And you two got involved?" This woman always knew how to get the main point when things came from relationships.

"No, she had a boyfriend at that time and I was kind of dating someone." He finally put down his fork near the plate and to carry his coffee then sipped it.

"You mean Isabel?" She always remembered those unimportant details.

"Yeah." Putting down his coffee, Grissom lightly leaned against his chair without looking at Catherine.

"Eh, so you two really had a life before." A cankered smile appeared on her face.

He said it out of patience, a little. "Yes, Catherine, everyone has a life, including us."

"And why did you date, Isabel?" She asked it while she was stirring her coffee with her spoon.

"Well, I needed someone to…um…to…" He always needed times to search for an appropriate word to say.

Catherine put her spoon down on the table and continued the sentence for Grissom. "To fuck?"

He looked at the blond hair woman with an unbelievable expression on his face. "I was going to say to discuss the life, Catherine."

After took a sip of her coffee, Catherine said. "Life isn't used for discussing, Gil."

"Anyway, we weren't that involved." Grissom did not know if he should glad that whether they have not been involved or not. He sighed, again.

"Then why do you care about her so much?" That was a familiar question to him.

Grissom's mind flied back to that day.

It was a raining day, but it was not romantic or fantastic as romance novels. It was the last day he stayed at San Francisco and he had a lunch date with Sara, and her boyfriend. Maybe God decided to help him to express emotions which he did not know how to tell or he was not allowed himself to show up in front of her, or her boyfriend.

So.

The rain suddenly poured down before they decided where to have their lunch. Sara suddenly stepped closer to Grissom before she awaked it. Grissom suddenly took off his jacket over her head to keep off the rain before her boyfriend had a chance to react.

And then.

"I'll go to get umbrellas."

That was all her boyfriend said before he turned around and leaving two of them staring at each other in the rain.

Unreadable molecules spread in the air during their lunch. With an unspoken consensus, three of them all artfully avoided _that_ and carefully picked up safe topics to talk.

After finished their meal, Sara excused herself to head to lady's room.

"Do you like Sara?" Her boyfriend asked the question at thirteen seconds later after Sara leaving the table.

"She is a great student and the best CSI I've never seen, and yes I like her."

"I think you didn't hear the question clearly, Doctor Grissom. Do you like _her_?" Grissom still remembered her boyfriend got the serious expression on his face when he asked the question.

He knew that he had to say the answer that her boyfriend wanted to hear or the answer he needed to convince himself, then Grissom said. "I like her as a friend, nothing else."

"Then why do you care about her so much?"

His memories faded away as his cell phone rang.

"I don't."

Grissom replied to Catherine the same answer as eight years ago. Then, answered the phone call.

"Grissom."

**TBC

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**A/N****：**Do you like this chapter? Please let me know what you think. And suggestions and advices are always welcome. Thanks for reading.


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